Lord Condon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Condon on 2014-05-07.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many meetings have taken place in 2014 between British and French authorities to discuss homeless people living in the Calais area who seek unlawfully to board British vehicles travelling to Dover; and what has been the outcome of any such meetings.
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
The UK works closely with the French authorities on matters of border security and cross border criminality to maintain the integrity of our joint border controls.
The Home Office and Border Force regularly meet the French at Ministerial, official and operational level to enhance our effectiveness in tackling irregular migration and organised immigration crime, including between Calais and Dover.
Recent collaboration has resulted in a grant of £2 million from the UK to replace and upgrade the Passive Millimetre Wave Imaging (PMMWI) equipment currently deployed in the ports of Calais and Coquelles.
In respect of the UK response to increase our impact on Organised Immigration Crime in France (especially northern France) Border Force have established a UK Task Force (Op Groundbreaker) and assembled Intelligence /Investigation Officers from Immigration Enforcement, Border Force, National Crime Agency and Kent Police. The Task Force is able to provide a robust response to OIC and work closely with French colleagues in Police Aux Frontiéres (PAF) nationally and in particular with OCRIEST (Office Central de Répression de l’Immigration Irrégulière et de l’Emploi d’Etrangers sans Titre – a specialist PAF Unit dedicated to tackling organised crime groups in France and abroad).
